EVE Online has just about everything you just mentioned, and is doing just fine. I prefer the WoW model, and so do the majority based on the numbers, but there is still a lively community for that type of gameplay.
I've been playing EVE since about 2007 now and it's the only thing keeping me playing MMOs let alone video games.
Then again EVE isn't really a game it's just a strange branch of real life.
True, in that it's very complex, and it does reward an analytical approach, which may or may not accord with one's own real life. Eve is a fantastic hobby, in that it is intellectually demanding, time consuming, skill rewarding, and an emotional investment. I can't recommend it but I'd certainly suggest it for whatever it is that ails ya.
That's a statement you can make about every game.
I'm just disappointed in the options available.
It is a new trailer CCP (makers of Eve) made with real player communication.
That spaceship thing is just a graphical representation to a very complex social simulation. Most people would keep playing EVE if CCP changed it into "Goat Simulator Online".
As someone told me once: EVE online is about spaceships like astronomy is about telescopes. (Of course he butchered a famous quote there).